Happy Holidays And A Recipe for Homemade Marshmallows

Wishing you the warmest of celebrations this season, perhaps over a cup or two of hot cocoa dressed with homemade marshmallows. This recipe was a successful find from The Clever Carrot; made without corn syrup. 

Peace, health and prosperity throughout the holidays, winter solstice and into the New Year!

HOMEMADE FLUFFY MARSHMALLOWS {CORN SYRUP FREE}

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Author: The Clever Carrot adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• ½ c. water + ¼ c.
• 3 tablespoons (3 packets) unflavored powdered gelatin
• 2 c. sugar
• ½ c. evaporated milk
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1½ c. powdered sugar
• ½ c. cornstarch

Cooking tools:

• clutter free workspace
• stand mixer
• non-stick 8x8 or 9x13 pan*
• parchment paper
• candy thermometer*
• rubber spatula
• sifter
• sharp knife, pizza wheel or kitchen scissors

*I recommend using a non-stick pan, but glass or metal will do. For thick marshmallows, use an 8x8 pan. For thinner marshmallows, use a 9x13 pan.

*In order for your marshmallows to set properly, the milk and sugar must be heated to approximately 250 F. Regular thermometers only go up to 220 F.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Generously coat the bottom and sides of your pan with cooking spray.
2. Cut the parchment paper to fit the inside of your pan. You should have about 2 inches of overhang on each side. These will be your 'handles' for easy removal.
3. Pour ½ cup water into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the gelatin and allow to soften, about 10 minutes.
4. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, evaporated milk, and ¼ cup water. Whisk over low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
5. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Immediately reduce to a simmer, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 247- 250 F, about 10-15 minutes.
6. Add the hot syrup to the gelatin mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated.*See important note below.
7. If using a vanilla bean, slice it in half lengthwise with a pairing knife. Scrape out the seeds using the blade of the knife. Add the seeds (or vanilla extract) to the bowl.
8. Increase the speed to high and beat until thick, fluffy, and tripled in volume, about 10-15 minutes. Your marshmallows will be a glossy, creamy white color.
9. Using a rubber spatula, quickly scrape out the mixture into the prepared pan. Lightly coat your spatula with cooking spray and smooth out the surface. Marshmallows set very quickly, so you will need to work fast. Do not worry about getting every last bit of marshmallow out of the bowl or making the top perfectly smooth!
10. Allow the mixture to set, uncovered (not refrigerated) for at least 8 hours- overnight.
11. After the marshmallows have set, combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk thoroughly.
12. Spoon some of the mixture into a sifter, and sift over the top of the marshmallows and a cutting board.
13. Using the parchment handles, remove the marshmallows from the pan and place onto your board.
14. Dust a large chef's knife, pizza wheel, or kitchen scissors with the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture so that they do not stick to the marshmallows.
15. Cut the marshmallows into 1-inch squares.
16. Toss the marshmallows into the mixture to prevent sticking.
17. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

NOTES

* Because evaporated milk is a tan color, your mixture will initially be brown. Do not fret- after 10-15 minutes of mixing on high speed, your marshmallows will become a soft, creamy white color.   

Homemade Chicken Patties

Though I mostly brown-bagged my way through public school, chicken patty day was one I splurged on. Thank you Uncle Sam for giving us school kids something to show you care.

I know it's gross. But I liked the super soft white bun, snow white whirl, and leaf of iceberg smothering the crisp, ultra salty excuse for chicken in a perfect round puck. It was like a chicken nugget sandwich. For a $1.95. What's not to like? (Don't answer). 

Yesterday, with a fair amount of roasted dark meat in the fridge, and getting a little bored of the usual applications, I started thinking about my school days. So I went for it. 

Warning: placing any amount of meat in a food processor may seem like a terrible, awful idea. And it would be if you just blended it up and dove in with a fork. But if you keep going and mix it with a creamy bechamel, grainy mustard and locally milled corn flour, then roll spoonfuls of the mixture in cracker crumbs then pan fry, you will be glad you followed through. You could even slap these bad boys on a fresh yeast roll and smother with some homemade mayo. Or make them smaller and serve with honey mustard as an appetizer. Sorry Uncle Samuel, these win. 

Homemade Chicken Patties:

*about 3 cups pulled roasted chicken meat, preferably dark meat

*2 tablespoons butter

*1/2 cup plus 1 heaping tablespoon flour, divided

*1 1/2 cups whole milk

*pinch grated nutmeg

*sea salt

*fresh ground black pepper

*3 tablespoons grainy mustard

*1 egg

*1 cup quality corn meal

*1 1/2 cups cracker crumbs or panko bread crumbs

*olive oil for frying

Place chicken meat in food processor and blend until uniform. Transfer to a mixing bowl and set aside. Make bechamel: Place a medium saucepan over medium heat with butter. Once melted add 1 tablespoon flour and whisk until incorporated. Allow to brown, whisking constantly. Slowly pour in milk while whisking. Bring to a simmer, and stir until sauce thickens. Season with nutmeg, sea salt and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches a smooth pancake batter consistancy. Stir in the mustard. Adjust seasonings. 

Place a large cast iron pan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to pan fry.

Mix bechamel with chicken and egg. Add enough cornmeal to create a spoonable mixture. Stir together remaining flour and bread crumbs in a small bowl. Season with sea salt. Working in batches, gently form about 3-4 tablespoons of chicken mixture into a loose ball and roll in flour/crumb mixture. Gently flatten and place in pan. Brown each side of patty, flipping once halfway through. Transfer to a cooling rack lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and serve with some homemade honey mustard sauce. 

Evergreen's Appalachian Journey Food Storybank Project And A Recipe For Chicken and Dumplings

~I was lucky enough to get to know a fine group of students from Evergreen Community Charter School  earlier this month, and discovered a story worth sharing. I was invited to participate in their Appalachian Journey Food Storybank project, an extension of Slow Food Asheville's oral cataloguing of local history and food memories. The 8th grade class was divided into small groups of 4, and were each assigned a person within the community to interview.

The story printed this week in the Asheville Citizen Times and is one I feel proud to have been associated with. Kudos to the students and Storybank leader, Marin Leroy: a devoted team of trailblazers.~

(Leader of chicken processing: Adam Billings of Four Feathers Farm)

(Students, teachers and local farmers involved with chicken processing)

This year, Slow Food Asheville and Evergreen Community Charter School teamed up to create the Appalachian Journey Food Storybank Project, an oral history of local food traditions.

An extension of the school’s Appalachian Journey studies, guided by environmental education coordinator Marin Leroy, the project aimed to record stories from voices across the region while giving the students an opportunity to practice conducting formal interviews, to be archived at the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

Each group of eighth-grade participants collected reflections and recipes from interviewees nominated by fellow community members. The recipes were used by the students for their project’s finale, which included a shindig potluck featuring traditional Appalachian dishes they cooked themselves.

Experiential education was the foundation of the project, with a focus on hands-on learning. The students even learned a valuable lesson about processing poultry.

“They learned to make stack cakes using apple butter they made themselves, cooked collard greens in yesterday’s chicken fat, pickled beets harvested from our school garden, and made scratch-made chicken and dumplings using chickens they slaughtered themselves,” said Leroy. “Through the discovery of Appalachian flavors, the student’s connection with the curriculum has been profound in a way they could have never experienced through reading textbooks.”

As part of a food culture often dotted with drive-thrus and rife with prepackaged convenience food items, Evergreen students chose to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction by getting their hands dirty and creating recipes from scratch.

“For me, this experience was really beneficial with learning about how people used to always do things,” explained eighth grade Storybank participant Ili Wickliffe. “If a family wanted meat, they would have to harvest it themselves. Simply going to the store to buy meat wasn’t a very common option.”

Students from Ili’s group opted to prepare their traditional recipe of chicken and dumplings from the very beginning. With the help of two experienced local farmers, the students processed the chickens themselves.

“I was affected by the experience, because I witnessed something I never had before, and now I have a better understanding of where my food comes from,” said fellow group participant Gavin Reep.

Although the chickens were harvested on one of the coldest mornings of the season, the group showed genuine devotion. They helped pluck the chickens and prepare broth from the harvest for their recipe.

“This project has left many different impressions on me,” said Rebecca Molaro. “But the one that really sticks out the most is the element of reality that is added to what you’re eating when you actually slaughtered it yourself.

“When you don’t see or know the process, it’s easy to just see the chicken on your plate and think nothing about it,” she continued. “Now that I have experienced this, I know how real the animal was and still is.”

Students used their interviews to create written profiles of the interviewees, record recipes and better understand Appalachian history.

The shindig served as a place to celebrate each group’s hard work throughout the project with good food, a video compilation of interview highlights, live music and festive contra dance. Reflecting on the project, student Drake Tomlinson said, “The whole thing was a really unique experience and I’m grateful that I got to participate.”

As the shindig festivities continued in earnest, onlookers could witness the gap between field and plate, middle-schooler and baby-boomer diminish.

A smiling teacher watching the students dance alongside fellow classmates, interviewees, parents and facility, turned to assistant administrator Sarah Shoemaker and said, “This is by far, the best night of the year.”

For more information on the Appalachian Journey Food Storybank Project, visit http://www.evergreenccsEE.com

(Ili, Gavin, Drake and Becca processing the chickens)

(Becca, Ili, Marin, Drake and Gavin making the dumplings for their dish)

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

1 whole pastured chicken, roasted, meat removed from bones

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 small sweet onion, chopped

4 celery stalks, chopped

5-6 carrots, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

5-6 cups chicken broth

Sea salt

Black pepper

1 cup frozen peas

Place a large heavy soup pot over medium heat with olive oil or butter. Add onion, celery and carrots. Saute 5 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic. Saute another 2 minutes. Add all meat from chicken. Season with sea salt and pepper. Pour in the broth. Bring to a slow simmer, and cover. Allow to simmer for at 15 minutes. Season to taste. Meanwhile, make dumplings.

FOR DUMPLINGS

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon aluminum free baking powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 cup buttermilk

Sift together dry ingredients. Cut in the butter and incorporate into flour mixture with fingertips until it resembles a coarse meal. Add parsley. Stir to blend. Pour in buttermilk and gently mix with a fork until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Working in batches, spoon about 3 tablespoons of batter into palm of your hand and gently form into a ball. Drop into simmering broth one at a time to create dumplings. Repeat with remaining batter. Dumplings should cover the top of the soup pot. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cover for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Sprinkle contents with frozen peas. Allow to cool before ladling into bowls and serving.

Slow Simmered Heirloom Beans

Thank you Ivy Creek Farm for the absolutely gorgeous bag of dried beans offered at market over the weekend, and for keeping heirlooms in the field and on the table.

Pictured here we have Kenearly Yellow Eye, Tiger Eye, and Speckled Cranberry.
After an overnight soak with a pinch of sea salt and a splash of cider vinegar they slow simmered for the better half of the day with sauteed sweet onion, garlic and chopped celery.
Creamy, buttery, sweet, pretty to look at, and completely different from canned beans in every single way possible. With a wedge of buttered skillet cornbread, this is food you could live on, everyday.
I did kick myself the whole way home from market for not searching out a ham bone.......but surprisingly, it wasn't missed (too much), and it's rare to say such a thing around here.

Viva genetic diversity!

From the Garden

Preserving Apples

Heating with wood has its pros and cons. When you wake up to cold floors and a thermostat needle just shy of 58 degrees and have to go outside to gather wood (before your coffee), it's hard to enjoy. But the pros are hard to beat, like sitting next to a crackly fire when the weather is nasty or warming your hands directly over the rising heat.

I have been using the wood stove more and more each year to dry things, from herbs to stale bread for making crumbs, and now apples. After seeing sliced apples strung on a piece of twine for drying on The Lovely Life, it seemed so obvious. Stringing takes up little space and looks so sweet.

The post translation didn't include any details, but I figured it would be pretty straight forward. And it is. . .

Rinse apples and slice into 1/2'' rounds. You can core them, but the natural star center is gorgeous. 

Transfer sliced apples to a bowl and arrange a place to thread onto twine. 

Once strung, I opted to bathe slices in lemon juice in hopes of keeping some nice color. 

Hang in well ventilated spot, preferably near a wood stove or fire place. Strings will be heavy, so secure well. 

Allow to dry 2-4 days. 

Apples are ready when fully dehydrated and leathery. The chewy consistency and concentrated sugars makes them fairly addictive. 

Enjoy. 

Wait...Don't Throw It Away

This could begin by discussing the problems with our throw-away society, or how much food waste goes to the landfill annually while one in five children struggle with hunger. But I like approaching the topic of food thrift on a positive tip, because positivity can be more mobilizing.

Stretching ingredients is no longer a remnant of the depression-era. Being careful with ingredients does not specifically represent poverty, or tough times, or war. In fact, keeping scraps from the trash is in line with today's haute cuisine trend, which some may find kind of ironic.

Watching chef Sean Brock on Mind Of A Chef (a worthwhile production, thanks PBS) fry chicken skins and glaze pig tail to serve to his guests at HUSK in Charleston, SC, I was reminded of this. Being savvy in the kitchen is once again represented by wasting little, thanks to some chefs, home cooks and cookbook authors who are promoting creative ways to serve up the underserved.

I personally remember how much my mom loved pan-fried liver and onions, and I would gag as she ate them, but now blend up a pate with some regularity. I adore chicken feet for a good broth, especially at $3 a bag at farmers market. And often a good loaf of market bread doesn't get eaten fast enough and quickly becomes hard as stone. These are opportunities. Because regardless of what political group we subscribe to, (or refuse to subscribe to), or where we grew up on whatever side of the tracks, or whether we are part of the majority or the 1%, the bottom line remains the same: our resources are not limitless. Waste is u.g.l.y.

Often I feature very pretty, quality food here on this blog, but this may be giving the wrong impression. Yes, our household spends a big piece of its financial pie on food, but this does not mean our pie is big. It's realistically more of a hand pie.

Food is a personal priority, but understandably not the priority of all. Regardless, our income is precious, and much of this is represented on the chopping block. I'll be damned if I have to throw any of it away.
In fact, as I type, eggs and cream are staging a serious Cinderella story on some leftover stale boule in the oven.

So here is the recipe for this post, if there ever was one (measurements are approximate):

*If you buy the best ingredients you are able without compromising other living essentials, don't throw away the scraps, put them in the next meal.
*Underdogs are hidden, affordable treasures.
*Fillet Mignon is overplayed.
*Dogmas are too.
*Carbs are beautiful, and so is butter.
*If you move your body and cook at home, you can relax a bit about a meal's glycemic load. And everything else.
*If you sit down grateful, your food will fully feed you.

Amen.

Postcard From The Kitchen

Does Your Broth Jiggle?

If it wobbles, jiggles bounces or shakes, your in good shape.

I've posted a fair amount on broth; how to make it, and why it's important, but haven't gone into too much detail on gelatin. If you make broth and chill it, and it cools to a aspic or jello consistency, this means you've gotten the gold.

Not only is gelatin good for the skin and joints, it soothes digestion and has been proven to help digest the proteins in wheat, oats, barley and dairy. By promoting gastric juices, gelatin is an overall digestive aid, perhaps why we crave it when we are sick. As the body is compromised fighting colds or other infections, gelatin is already broken down into easily absorbed amino acids, containing essential trace minerals while offering the digestive tract a break.

I prefer making broth with chicken or duck feet, which are very high in gelatin. But you can also get plenty of gelatin from bones.

Lately I have been slow cooking whole chickens or a couple pounds of chicken legs in a dry crock pot with a chopped onion, garlic, a lemon, sea salt and black pepper. The meat tenderizes beautifully over the course of a full day, and the liquid produced during the process is chock full of gelatin. I strain and chill it, then skim away most of the fat. The result is a concentrated jiggly bounty (pictured). It freezes well and serves as an excellent base for soups and sauces.

With cold season upon us, this stuff will keep you from running to the drugstore the next time you're laid-up on the couch. Make it now, throw it in the freezer, then warm it up and sip when you need a boost.

Fall Equinox

Braising some local beef, hanging garlands and collecting lucky buckeyes. 

Welcome Autumn!

Summer Flashbacks

Just after the Spring equinox, when everything was stirring, I bid farewell to my longtime friend Micah.   We had 14 years together.

He was better than perfect. I got lucky to find this guy.

Then summer happened:

Ready for the next round.

 Goodbye sweet summertime...

Asheville's Walking Food Tour

(Last week's piece for Asheville Grit:)

Eating Asheville Tours

BY: RACHEL BROWNLEE | Friday, September 12, 2014 - 10:18am

-Sunburst Trout crostini and sparkling white wine at the Downtown Book Exchange-

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The tour really isn’t something locals do, but then again I long ago made myself exempt from that list. After all, I’m a food writer who eats at a restaurant maybe once every six weeks? So here is the disclaimer on this post: I am not a food critic. Never have been and have no interest in being. I write about what producers are doing, and what I do in my kitchen, not how my steak was executed at the newest downtown hot spot. I have respect for the latter (if I dig deep), but no desire to do it. At the risk of sounding like a bleeding-heart bohemian, in a world where most eat only what they have access to, I have always been the type who is glad to consume just about anything if hungry enough. 

    It’s not about knowing the difference between brilliant food and the opposite, maybe it’s more a matter of my roots. I grew up in a loving, low-budget household of an avid hunter and have eaten some colorful offerings over the years. Piles of buckshot were regular on our dinner plates growing up. Sometimes my siblings and I even made a game out of who collected the most. Fortunately kids get hungry after playing all day, which is the best sauce for all things squirrel and whistle pig, although nary a sauce was needed for the usual servings of elk, goose, or venison. I am grateful I was fed, and still feel the same way. Though nowadays I don’t miss pulling shrapnel from my food (this was really only when we had squirrel or doves by the way). Anyhow, this is a clean story about a sweet food tour in a historical downtown, told by a girl who still loves to be fed, and especially likes to get full.

    My friend Lindsay invited me to be her guest for Eating Asheville’s Thursday Walking Food Tour, of which her husband Stuart is the guide. I knew Stu would be entertaining and a good person to follow into a restaurant as a seasoned foodie and professionally trained student of the culinary arts. He is also the handsome face among the talented staff at Table. A good person to have showing you around.

-Shrimp hushpuppies at Imperial-

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    The idea of the tour is to give participants a chance to sample an assortment of downtown cuisine within a fixed price and time period (about 2.5 hours at about $50) while offering educational dialogue on historic Asheville and background on local chefs making waves. For the restaurants/chefs involved, they gain the benefit of catering directly to their prime consumers (tourists) whom they rely on to talk to their friends and tell them how amazing the amuse bouche was at such-and-such while visiting Asheville, and to come back for more. A brilliant way to advertise. 

    The top of the list: Cucina 24. As our first stop after our initial meet-up with sparkling wine andSunburst Trout crostini at the Battery Park Book Exchange, (Cucina's) Chef Brian Canipelligave it to us right: seared octopus and market cherry tomatoes scattered with pancetta. It was a warm heap of everything you would want in a dish. The octopus was tender, the tomatoes held up to the heat but surrendered easily in a burst of heirloom, seedy juice. The whole dish had a good bit of spice but of the right caliber, tempered by swallows of fine red (I can’t remember what it was, but it was from a region of good wine makers probably somewhere in Europe who most likely also eat octopus regularly.) This was the highlight of the tour. Canipelli gave us an ample serving, he spoke about why he does what he does and made us feel welcome before going back to his kitchen to prepare for the evening rush.

-Plates awaiting octopus at Cucina 24-

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    Then we were off to the next stop, with octopus and red wine priming our bellies. Stuart kept us on schedule without feeling rushed and had us laughing with his charming wit as we strolled from place to place. We were in each space for about 15 minutes, sampling and sipping. 

    We had shrimp encased in a crunchy hush puppy with house-made slaw, micro greens and white wine at The Imperial Life; gelato and truffles at Chocolate Gems; orecchiette in a garlicky parmesan sauce with white wine at Strada Italiano; okra chips and authentically inspired nibbles with a honey-lime rum cocktail at MG Road; and ended the tour with a brisket-and-sweet-roll bang washed down with strawberry sangria at Zambra. 

-MG Road-

-Truffles at Chocolate Gems-

-Brisket at Zambra-

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    The tour included enough food and drink to feel full and adequately buzzed by the end. I enjoyed getting to know some of the places I would have otherwise glossed over, and took away a healthy desire to have Cucina 24 be the destination for my next evening out. 

    Here is something I didn’t anticipate walking away with----a surprising appreciation for tourists. Aside from the usual gripes this class of individuals attracts, tourists have a strong place in this story. There are clear rewards in the symbiotic relationship between visiting out-of-towner’s and talented chefs provided enough traffic to support their artistry. Visitors come here to eat, sip and view, dropping their hard earned cash here while doing so. And at least they are the types looking for an experience we can give them, something not all cities can offer, well beyond an assortment of drive-thrus. We are not getting the Disney World crowd, but people with a desire to know more about why we live here.

A few bites in, I think they got the idea. Sans buckshot.

-At Strada. There I am in the navy stripes.-

-Lindsay with her rum cocktail at MG Road-

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Photographs provided by Eating Asheville's Hank Fuseler (with the exception of the last one) http://hankfuseler.com/

To schedule a tour visit EatingAsheville.com